Photo by Deepanker Verma from Pexels
Popular web browsing software actually used to cost money. In fact it was not until 1998 that Netscape navigator became free to use for regular consumers. But almost no one pays for web browsers any more. So, why are the companies that developed them giving them out for free? Do they just hate money? Of course not.
Also Read: People Cards on Google Search In India
Web browsers are actually monetized quite heavily and do make money. It's just that it's not always obvious to an end user, like you or me, how that happens. So let's take a look at how some of the popular web browsers keep themselves afloat, starting with the biggest one of them all:
Google Chrome:
Credits: Chrome
It turns out that the development of the world's most popular web browser is easily supported by the things that it merely encourages its users to do. For example, Chrome's search feature automatically uses Google as its default search engine which invariable will serve you the ads that make up a huge part of Google's revenue.
Edge:
By the way this is very similar to how Microsoft's edge browser works and makes money as well. Only by directing people to Microsoft's own search engine Bing and it's own advertisements instead.
Mozilla Firefox:
As we mentioned above that Google pays other competing web browsers to use Google Search as its default search engine. Just as Google aims to use Chrome to direct users to its services, it also tries to get other browsers to do the same thing. Mozilla Firefox is a great example of this, Google has made multiple deals with Mozilla over the years to make Google Firefox's default search engine in certain markets. Firefox got a little over half a billion dollars in royalties in 2017.
Other search engines like Yandex and Baidu have also contributed large amounts of money to Mozilla which has become quite important to Firefox's survival as it's usage share has been declining for a number of years. Although Mozilla still operates as a non-profit and does still receive contributions from folks who just feel like donating, the vast majority of its income now comes from its search engine royalties.
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